Build the Lever Agent Skill

Apply to any non-trivial work, not just bulk work: edits, migrations, analyses, checks.

Context cost
650 tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 2.6 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
GPL-3.0the author’s own terms
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Apply to any non-trivial work, not just bulk work: edits, migrations, analyses, checks. Build the tool that does it or proves it (codemod, script, generator, or a skill your subagents follow) instead of working by hand. The tool is the artifact a reviewer can rerun.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

productivity

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, and here they are in full: the front matter loads with every session, and the body below it loads when the skill triggers.

SKILL.md2.6 kB
--- name: principle-build-the-lever user-invocable: false ---
6# Build the Lever
7
8When the work isn't trivial, build the tool that does it instead of doing it by hand.
9
10**Why:** Two payoffs. Throughput: a codemod, generator, or script does the work the same way every time and reruns for free. Confidence: the tool is one artifact a reviewer can read and rerun to check the work. Hand-done changes can only be re-verified by redoing them. A deterministic script turns "trust me" into "run this".
11
12**Pattern:** Default to building the lever. Skip it only when the task is genuinely trivial, a couple of obvious edits you can see at a glance.
13
14- Do the first unit by hand to learn the recipe, then build the tool. Prove it by rerunning it on that unit and diffing against your hand-done version. Make the lever safe to rerun. A reviewer will.
15- Codemod or script for edits, generator for repetitive files, a dump-to-sqlite query for analysis, a rerunnable check for verification.
16- A deterministic lever beats fan-out. If the tool can process every unit in one pass, run it yourself; don't fan out delegates to hand-apply what a script can do.
17- When you fan work out to subagents, write the lever as a skill they all read: the recipe, the verification contract, and the do-not-touch fences in one artifact, so every delegate inherits the same hardened version instead of re-explaining it per prompt and watching each one drift. Keep it outside the delegates' write scope so they can't quietly edit the contract.
18- Applying this principle produces a file. If you cited it and there is no codemod, script, generator, or delegate skill in the diff, you didn't apply it.
19- Commit the lever when the work outlives the session, so the next run reruns it instead of redoing it.
20
21**Balance:** The bar is triviality, not repetition. A one-off still earns a lever when the lever is what makes the work checkable. Per the [Laziness Protocol](../principle-laziness-protocol/SKILL.md), build the smallest script that does or proves the job, never a framework.
22
23Distinct from [Encode Lessons in Structure](../principle-encode-lessons-in-structure/SKILL.md), which makes a recurring instruction a durable guardrail. This is throughput and reviewability on the work in front of you. For scripting the verification itself, see [Prove It Works](../principle-prove-it-works/SKILL.md).
24
This is the whole of SKILL.md. Install the skill to get it and everything beside it.
In the file
SKILL.md426 words
Files1
LicenceGPL-3.0
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈90
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
560
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
0.33%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 3% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

650 tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Small enough to keep loaded permanently without thinking about it.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md, shown in full above.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

1 file, 2.6 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md2.6 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing. The GPL-3.0 licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Build the Lever · 650 tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/build-the-lever/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/build-the-lever" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/build-the-lever ] || { mv .claude/skills/build-the-lever "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/build-the-lever" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/build-the-lever"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add geiserx/build-the-lever

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/build-the-lever/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/build-the-lever/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/build-the-lever" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/build-the-lever ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/build-the-lever "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/build-the-lever" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/build-the-lever" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/build-the-lever/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where. It appears as principle-build-the-lever in Gemini CLI, Codex, Copilot and Grok (its own name); Claude Code lists it by the folder name, build-the-lever.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencegeiserx/build-the-lever

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

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Publisher
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